Thursday, 4 November 2010

Urban Legend

1998
Dir. Jamie Blanks

After several deaths and disappearances of fellow students, Natalie (Alicia Witt) begins to suspect that a brutal psychopathic killer is offing the campus populace in grisly ways inspired by old urban legends. Trouble is, no one believes her. Teaming up with best gal-pal Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart) and roving student reporter Paul (Jared Leto), she sets out to reveal who the killer is and stop them before its too late… but wait! Who’s that over there? Hello? Hello?? *wonders off alone to investigate a strange noise*

An urban legend is a form of modern folklore, usually passed on by word of mouth concerning an event believed by the teller to be true. They are stories that act as cautionary morality tales that vary over time, and usually carry some significance for the particular communities that propagate them. The premise of Urban Legend - that various students are being murdered in a manner that echoes the style of notorious urban legends/folktales - is one that was merely touched on by various horror titles in the past; none had ever adopted this as their raison d’être in quite the same way Urban Legend has. The most famous instances where urban legends were briefly used in other horror movie plots are of course When a Stranger Calls and Black Christmas. Both of these taut, compelling films used the tale of the young babysitter being menaced by a prank caller, whose calls are later revealed to be coming from inside the house, to chilling effect: the former in an extended prologue, the latter as the grisly shock twist.

Urban Legend is pure Eighties slasher goodness in everything but the decade in which it was made. One of the many slasher movies produced in the imposing wake of Scream – and like that film before it, also hinged on an intriguing murder mystery - was also one of the few to successfully negate the overtly nudge-wink approach adopted by Kevin Williamson. Indeed, it is one of the few slashers from this era that had no connection to that writer whatsoever. While there are one or two moments of self-referentialism, these relate more to the actors, not the characters or their familiarity with horror movie conventions. Speaking of which – slasher fan Blanks (Long Weekend, Valentine) obviously knows these conventions inside out, because he sticks to them like flypaper, never once veering into uncharted territory.

Characters here do a fine job of making us believe they’ve never seen a horror film – they split up to search for a missing friend, investigate weird noises in the middle of nowhere, have frat parties to commemorate previous massacres and indulge in the usual lashings of sex and drugs all the best 80s slashers exhibited. Not that this is a bad thing of course, slasher movie fans garner much of their enjoyment from the predictable nature of these plots and the familiar characteristics utilised by them. They know what to expect, and Blanks knows how to deliver – he never set out to change the face of horror, he only wanted to produce a slick, thrilling slasher flick based on an intriguing premise, with a young sexy cast of TV stars.

Urban Legend comprises of a number of well constructed and suspenseful scenes, and is a film built around convoluted set-pieces. But what set pieces! And because it is all done so with such aplomb it will prove absolutely irresistible to slasher fans; not least the bravura opening in which a young woman who stops at a spooky gas station only to realise too late that the danger she’s in doesn’t come from the stuttering, creepy gas attendant (Brad Dourif) who seems intent on luring her out of the car, but from the parka-clad killer already lurking in the back seat.

Director Blanks over-relies on shock jumps and Silvio Horta’s screenplay fills up with red-herrings, including spooky janitors and menacing professors (Robert Englund) just in case the rudimentary murder mystery isn’t enough to keep viewers on their toes. Despite the lurid appeal, the film is actually one of the more bloodless slashers of the time, Blanks preferring to rely on building atmosphere and racking up the tension, than indulging in gore. The young cast all do a fine job and inject a bit of life into their mainly two-dimensional characters – particularly the brilliant Alicia Witt whose performance elevates her character Natalie above and beyond the usual slasher fodder histrionics. Also on top form is Jared Leto, who manages to make his selfish tabloid-hack student journalist Paul rather likeable.

The striking looking killer cuts an imposing figure; the parka lending them a ‘hip’, gritty, and well, I guess ‘urban’ edginess. Adopting a purposeful stride more akin to Michael Myers, than the flailing, maniacal jumpiness of Scream’s Ghostface, this is one calculating, determined and vicious thug. Who is, of course, revealed to be avenging a past misdeed, as many great slasher villains are.

Urban Legend is a charmingly old fashioned, straight-laced slasher that was as much a cut above the others of its era, as it has been date-stamped and defined by that era.

Cheers guys! Nice to see I'm not the only who really kinda digs Urban Legend. It is one of my favourite slashers from the Nineties, and a reliable go-to film. Now where did I put my copy of the soundtrack...?

I like this one a lot. I always have and I always will. I love Alicia Witt's performance, I love the script, the kills were awesome - well, the Michael Rosenbaum death was a tad silly - and I thought Rebecca Gayheart was crazy girl fun. I asked for this for Christmas one year before DVDs were all the rage and still have it on VHS.

Behind the Couch is a term used as a humorous metaphor to describe the actions that a state of fear may drive someone to: for example, a young child hiding 'behind the couch' when watching a scary film or TV show. Its use generally evokes a feeling of nostalgia: safe fear in a domestic setting.

In the case of this blog, it also denotes the reviewer hiding behind the couch in shame, due to the huge amount of trashy horror films he watches...

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'The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.'

H.P. Lovecraft

'Like one, that on a lonesome roadDoth walk in fear and dread,And having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.'

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

'A shudder through the silence creptAnd death athwart the noonlight swept…Graves closed round my path of life,The beautiful had fled;Pale shadows wandered by my side,And whispered of the dead.'

Sarah Helen Whitman

'We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.'

Stephen King

'Human beings are the only living creatures endowed with a full awareness of their own mortality.'

Alex Lickerman, Buddhist Physician

'A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.'